By JIMITOTA ONOYUME

PORT HARCOURT – RIVERS State Government, yesterday, said it was not subsidising the cost of petrol in the state.

Commissioner of Information, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, who made the clarification, said the state government only agreed to assist independent petroleum marketers with what she called bridging finance, noting that this would be paid back by the marketers.

She said it would be a revolving loan with no interest and would run for about six months within which the pump price of petrol would have crashed based on market forces. She said the marketers agreed at a meeting with the state government to dispense petrol at N137 per litre, adding that government would also provide security for petroleum tankers to ensure that products were not diverted from the state.

The commissioner said government had also set up a committee to be headed by Prof. Nimi Briggs to acquire buses through a special arrangement from development institution to be distributed to road transport workers in the state. The buses would be paid for under a human friendly arrangement.

Ibim explained that government would set up seven discount markets round the state to ease the burden of buying food items.